<p>My dream school is MIT, but that is crapshot for anyone, But WPI seems to be the 2nd best engineering school in New England...Is it well know nationally?
Is it prestigious in the engineering field?</p>
<p>WPI is without a doubt well known on the east coast. Its three projects curriculum is unique compared to many schools. Im not sure about the whole nation, but once you get experince and/or a grad degree, it wouldn't matter anymore.</p>
<p>I heard that it is more undergrad focuesd. is WPI more a teaching institution than a research one? how is its research and graduate studies?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Research and WPI is almost like oil in wate, it doesn't mix. But its a tech school so of course thier will be some research. But if you want to do alot research for undergrad, I wouldn't come to WPI. But Im going to be a senior in high school, so what should I know.LOL!!!</p>
<p>I did go to a open house and one of the questions was research, so thats how I know.</p>
<p>Meh, WPI has some ties to Lincoln Labs and good off campus research MQPs. It's not the best research school, but there still is some research.</p>
<p>WPI is actually fairly well-known, particularly in New England, and it's among the top 10 colleges for high salaries of their graduates (according to Forbes):</p>
<p>In</a> Pictures: Top Colleges For Getting Rich - Forbes.com</p>
<p>Granted, this should be taken with an enormous grain of salt, since engineers make quite a bit of money even if they graduate from a non-flagship state school (which only tells you that prestige isn't really very important; state universities usually have very good professors and facilities). However, it should give you the impression that WPI is known to the national business world. </p>
<p>Now, I'm from Oklahoma, and none of my family, friends, or high school teachers had ever heard of WPI. However, the professor I took differential equations from (night classes in high school) was familiar with the school, and recommended it over Rice and Harvard (where I had also been accepted; granted, the recommendation was largely based on the fact that WPI gave me a full scholarship, but it was a compelling endorsement; in his view, WPI was good enough to outweigh the $20,000/year commitment at Rice or the $40,000/year commitment at Harvard).</p>
<p>As far as "2nd best engineering school in New England," sure. BU and most of the big state universities are also pretty good; good enough that you shouldn't decide to go to WPI just based on the difference in prestige.</p>
<p>Now, regarding research: WPI is not a big research powerhouse, but there's still plenty to be done on campus, and the motivated student shouldn't have much trouble finding something. Last summer I did an REU at another university, but this summer I did research with WPI's math department. Outside of academic research, one can easily do industrial or corporate research as a WPI student, either through an internship or a senior project. Every student is required to do either engineering design or research to graduate with a degree in science or engineering. Basically, don't listen to boston<em>man</em>2009; he doesn't seem to know what he's talking about.</p>
<p>Well I said I wasn't an expert at it and usally I wouldn't response too a post if I wasn't an expert. But the WPI board is kinda slow, so I thought I would response.d Sorry for false info.</p>
<p>Actually, boston<em>man</em>2009, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to come off as harshly as I did.</p>
<p>I would think that the student projects at WPI provide a wonderful opportunity for research. It's a great school.</p>
<p>Yea, WPI is a great school. I think its better then MIT for undergrad just becasue it specalizes in undergrad teaching. Im going to apply and its top 5</p>
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Yea, WPI is a great school. I think its better then MIT for undergrad just becasue it specalizes in undergrad teaching. Im going to apply and its top 5
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<p>I'd have trouble believing that WPI has a better undergraduate program then MIT (MIT has more resources, recruiting power, money, etc.), but I haven't gotten to WPI yet so I could be misled. </p>
<p>As for the salary survey, that's very interesting. I'm surprised that WPI would have a higher median income than RPI but perhaps WPI does better because less of their students become college professors (who obviously make less than professional engineers). Also I have to wonder if there is some sampling bias in the pay scale statistics. I mean, did they get an equal number of people responding from all the schools?</p>
<p>Yea let me clarify here. To me I think MIT holds all the good labs and professors for the grad students. But WPI doesn't, all classes are taught by professors and the labs seemed to be fairly used by undergrads when went on a tour. Somebody will disagree with me, but thats just my honest opionion. Maybe I love WPI TOO much!!!</p>
<p>Hm, I think it might be true that more RPI PhD students become professors than at WPI (who tend to go into industry), but I don't think that's true at any significant level for undergraduates. It might be that WPI produces more graduates that go into management than strictly engineering, or that companies that hire from WPI happen to pay more (in particular, a large number of WPI graduates work for defense contractors, e.g., Raytheon). Location also might have something to do with it.</p>
<p>Then again, looking at the data, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between WPI and RPI in terms of average salary. If you go here, you'll see what I mean:
Best</a> Engineering Colleges By Salary Potential</p>
<p>This just confuses me further (where the hell does Forbes get the ranking?), but the point is that WPI (and RPI) grads make good money. I think looking for sample bias is being a bit too nitpicky, though it's probably true that the survey is misleading.</p>
<p>Hmmm... This probably isn't relevant to comparisons with RPI and other polytechnic schools, but I have to dispute the methodology of only including those who don't go to graduate school. </p>
<p>I mean, for a lot of majors like history or philosophy, graduate school is practically a requirement. </p>
<p>So why not measure the time-adjusted lifetime earnings minus life time graduate education costs for all of the schools? </p>
<p>That said, I would very much like to see a list of schools and majors that didn't exclude people who went on to graduate school.</p>